Communications

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:

William Eldridge Odom (June 23, 1932 – May 30, 2008) was a retired U.S. Army 3-star general, and former Director of the NSA under President Ronald Reagan, which culminated a 31-year career in military intelligence, mainly specializing in matters relating to the Soviet Union. After his retirement from the military, he became a think tank policy expert and a university professor and became known for his outspoken criticism of the Iraq War and warrantless wiretapping of American citizens. He died of an apparent heart attack at his vacation home in Lincoln, Vermont. His death has been widely reported. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/31/AR2008053102193.html

I am a member of the news media and request classification as such. I have previously written about the Bureau for AND Magazine, MuckRock and Glomar Disclosure. My articles have been widely read, with some reaching over 100,000 readers. As such, as I have a reasonable expectation of publication and my editorial and writing skills are well established.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.

I am interested in personnel documents and materials, including personality files, applications, papers regarding promotions, commendations or criticisms, as well as security checks regarding the William Odom and any Inspector General reports relating to the Inspector.

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Sept. 27, 2016. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #85566.

Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Sept. 27, 2016. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #85566.

Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Sept. 27, 2016. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #85566.

Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.

We have begun our search for records responsive to your request. Since your request is not a simplerequest, it has been placed in the first-in, first-out processing backlog queue. Please be aware that our office is experiencing a significant backlog in requests and it may take two years or more to receive your records. NSA follows Department of Justice guidelines for processing FOIA/PA requests on a first-in, first-out basis. This method of responding to requests is also advocated by the Department of Defense,of which NSA is a component. Plus all records must undergo at least two levels of review before a release determination can be made. We appreciate your patience with our efforts to treat all requesters fairly by responding to each on a "first-in, first-out" basis.

Understand your refined request (as of Oct 20, 2016):I am interested in personnel documents and materials, including personality files, applications, papersregarding promotions, commendations or criticisms, as well as security checks regarding the William Odom and any Inspector General reports relating to the Inspector. (reading this last part as ....IG Reports relating to William Odom).

Thank you for the update. The interpretation you describe with "reading this last part as ....IG Reports relating to William Odom" is correct and consistent with my intent. Thank you for clarifying, and I apologize about the slightly vague language. To further clarify, I did not mean to state that I am looking for IG Reports authored or contributed to by William Odom, but rather IG Reports that relate to him directly. If you require any further clarification or have any suggestions about how to refine the request so as to reduce the search and review burden on your office while still providing materials of interest, I will try to be open to them.

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Sept. 27, 2016. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #85566A.

Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.

We are still waiting to receive documents from other offices in response to your request. Once received, the case will go into our initial processing queue. Please be aware that our office is experiencing a significant backlog in requests and it may take two years or more to receive your records.

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Sept. 27, 2016. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #85566A.

Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.

We are still waiting to receive documents from other offices in response to your request. Once received, the case will go into our initial processing queue. Please be aware that our office is experiencing a significant backlog in requests and it may take two years or more to receive your records.